Peter Paul Rubens paintings in Antwerp

Antwerp's Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp holds 180 works by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) — the city's entire known holding of this artist in a single institution.

Rubens painted on a grand scale — large altarpieces, mythological cycles — and his work assumes a physical relationship with the viewer. In person, the energy of his compositions is overwhelming: figures heave and turn, colours glow, the paint surface is fluid and alive.